Ready Player One (Movie) – 2018

Rating:

Before I start getting yelled at for giving this movie 4 stars, I just want to say that I am writing this review as if the movie version is not based off of a novel. I will refer to the novel, but if this was a comparison post between the movie and the book, the rating would be much different and this post much longer.

Ready Player One was directed by Steven Spielberg. The main actors were ones you may have seen, but are mostly “up and coming” besides Simon Pegg and T.J. Miller (who was actually doing a live show, attended by my cousin, in my city as I was watching this movie). T.J. Miller might not be well known to some, but he has done voicework for a lot cartoons I have watched.

Two things I want to briefly state before I get into this review. 1. The movie was based off the novel written by Ernest Cline. 2. The character I-R0k was not a new character created for this movie and was most definitely a minor character in the book (I dare you to fight me on this – or you could just read the book).

The movie starts out in the year 2045 in Columbus, Ohio. We start off in “The Stacks” where Wade Owen Watts takes residency. The Stacks are just that. Trailer homes stacked on top of one another. One of my friends pointed out that it would be really shitty if someone’s plumbing was not working properly (ba-dum-tish).

The owner of the OASIS, which is basically a MMORPG that everyone is logged into and spends their daily life on, is dead. James Halliday leaves not only his fortune, but the ownership of the OASIS to anyone who can find all the easter eggs he has hidden in the OASIS.

Nolan Sorrento, the leader of Innovative Online Industries (IOI), is using all of his employees, time, and money into searching for the easter eggs and stopping Wade Watts known as Parzival in the OASIS after he takes the lead. Things get worse for both Sorrento and Wade when Wade teams up with 4 other players in game and real life to form the High Five. Sorrento is playing to win the OASIS and profit off of it and the High Five are playing to not only gain some income, but to keep the OASIS free for everyone as the creator intended.

Wow! Just wow! When the movie first started I had a feeling that I would be highly disappointed in seeing one of my favorite books translate to the silver screen. However, after the introduction of Wade and his life in the Stacks with his aunt, it really hooked me until the end.

The best part was trying to find all the references in the movie – video games, movies, TV Shows, etc. I think Joe (my fiance), Jen (my best friend since high school), and I spent the better part of an hour after the movie saying all the characters we found and in which scenes.

Everything was well explained. Non-gamers and non-nerds may not understand why there are so many characters in it that they’ve seen before (The Iron Giant, Sonic the Hedgehog, Chucky, etc) but they would definitely understand the plot, even if they’ve never played an MMORPG before.

The movie was perfectly paced and I did not feel like it was slow at any parts. It was well balanced between the in game and real world stories and relationships.

The acting was phenomenal and I was not disappointed in any of the character portrayals. A major change in the movie that they made was absolutely hysterical and I loved it (I won’t give spoilers,but all I will say is it is the scenes referencing The Shining).

The only major thing I had an issue with (and it really isn’t a big deal) was that there were no sexual references in the whole movie besides one awkward scene where Parzival’s love interest Art3mis floats between his legs and runs her hands from his legs all the way to his shoulders, making sure she gets in between (if you get my drift). She was making a valid point that he was prepared for their date by buying a suit that transferred the feeling of being touched in game to the real life body. It honestly was not needed or could have been done another way as to keep continuity with the fact there was nothing “adult” in the movie (and the stuff that was had been censored ie The Shining scenes).

I gave this movie a 4 star rating. It would have gotten 5 if it hadn’t been for the awkward touching scene and the fact that I am a big fan of this book and there was too many differences made for the movie.

What did you think of the movie? What was your favorite “easter egg” in it? Do you agree with my review? Leave a comment!

-K.